Thanks for the memories!

Such a frustrating disappointment

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

The dream house, that Marina and Vittorio, a petty bourgeois couple, have set their eyes on, turns out to be the biggest nightmare of their lives. After all, they get much more of what they bargained for in the shape of Eastern European neighbors whose life style clashes with their more sophisticated and refined taste. Marina and Vittorio spent heavily to get that kind of life. Thus, a frustrating battle ensues between Marina and Vittorio and their mysterious neighbors, that in turn will bring out the couple's own paranoia and prejudice against the enemy from another culture they perceived the inhabitants of the house next door are.Little did this couple realize the innocent pictures they took as a sort of warm up present to themselves will end up in the hands of their neighbors; soon the whole quiet development will see them in compromising positions. Marina and Vittorio get relentless punishment from the gate keeper, who is their worst gossip they could ask for.The direction for this Italian comedy is by Federico Zampaglione, a first time director. He is man with little credit to his own in that country's cinema, but he shows that things will improve with experience. Best thing in the film is Claudia Gerini, seen as Marina and Luca Lionello as her husband Vittorio.

I'm not quite sure what have I seen. Was it a comedy? A satire? The story, if you can call it that, unfolds so slowly that there is not a chance to keep anyone's attention. A couple with bourgeois aspirations buy a small villa in the suburbs, they will find themselves living next door to a strange foreign couple. There is nothing in the telling of the story that could make us care about the happenings that ensue. Claudia Gerini goes through the motions, obligatory it seems, in every Italian movie. A strip tease of sorts. The kind of spectacle that it's always present in every Italian TV show and/or movie. I don't get it really, and I'm Italian. If you put a gun to my head and ask me to choose something positive about the movie. I will say, Luca Lionello. He is a very eccentric actor but, appealing, intriguing. I can't wait to see him in something that allows his human side to be at the forefront. The director, a singer/songwriter, must have had an idea behind this enterprise. But I couldn't tell you what the idea was.